Floating Studio

This exhibition brings together a tight selection of collection items by two recent participants in the Gallery’s Visiting Artist Programme, Fiona Connor and Alicia Frankovich.  The title for this exhibition makes clear reference to the in-between state of being an artist in temporary residence, and the provisional qualities that are present in both of these artists’ practice.

Floating Studio: Alicia Frankovich

 Alicia Frankovich spent eight weeks in Dunedin where she researched and developed the exhibition Effigies which was informed, like many of her previous works, by her childhood training as a gymnast and the eventual risks and failures associated. There were six works presented in Effigies one of which was Pas de Deux (Step of Two), Cornucopia of Spoons with Dancing Birds in Outdoor Pool. 

This work was directly influenced by Frankovich’s interest in the type of structures located around the city of Dunedin. One of these recurring motifs was The Octagon, both in shape and as a central landmark in the city's infrastructure. This work is a large octagonal shallow black pool with suspended chains, dripping water, and a cluster of brass spoons. There is a direct reference to The Octagon itself and the Star Fountain that once adorned its lower half. Frankovich’s minimal, architectural and contemporary fountain is positioned to look directly over the area that inspired it. 

Floating Studio: Fiona Connor

The sense of exploration and itinerancy was ever-present in Connor’s period in Dunedin, where she setup a range of social experiments and exchanges, critical forums and interventions in the gallery’s display system.  In Floating Studio we find a sampling of these offerings through a selection of her ‘Stand’ series, designed specifically for a Colin McCahon, Toss Woollaston and Milan Mrkusich painting, and a set of in-situ studies of various public spaces in Dunedin.  

The residency has become an important way for the Gallery to develop a unique relationship with a diverse group of contemporary artists and a way of securing new acquisitions for the collection. Floating Studio provides the first opportunity for audiences to consider this group of Connor’s fantastically obsessive drawings. 

View the exhibition labels – click here